The early bird will catch the early 40-inch flat screen LCD television this Friday.
Black Friday deals abound as Columbus retailers open early in the a.m. in hopes of taking advantage of a slowly improving economy.
Along Highway 45, Walmart will be first out of the gate to offer special discounts. The retail giant will take advantage of its 24-hour service as its post-Thanksgiving sale begins at 12:01 a.m. Various items will be marked down for a short period, then the sale returns from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Old Navy will also open at kick off its sale at midnight, when every pair of adult jeans in the store will be $15 and every pair of kids” jeans $10, in addition to other deals.
Elsewhere on Columbus” main thoroughfare, the typical 4 a.m. opening will be in effect.
Belk”s early-bird specials from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. include $20 boots and an electronic reader for $100.
Sears” doorbuster deals will be in effect from 4 a.m. to noon. Managers expect electronics, like a 42-inch Zenith television for $300, to rule the early hours but tools will carry the day.
GameStop will check in at 5 a.m. without any specific deals, but managers still expect to sell plenty of copies of top games like Call of Duty: Black Ops and Assassin”s Creed Brotherhood, along with the X-Box 360s, PlayStation 3s and Nintendo Wiis.
Most stores in Leigh Mall also plan to open at 5 a.m.
Office Depot opens its doors at 6 a.m. with multiple deals. In addition to the always-popular combination of laptops, digital cameras and GPS systems, managers believe tablet computers designed to compete with Apple”s iPad will also make a splash.
Books-A-Million, which opens at 7 a.m., has entered the electronics market with Nook E Readers, electronic book readers which range from $150 to $250. Cook books are buy-one-get-one-half-off and managers already can”t keep George W. Bush”s Talking Points on shelves.
Cowboy Maloney”s Electric City has a limited number of washer/dryer combos for under $600, refrigerators for $300 and 40-inch LCD televisions for $400 when it opens at 7:30 a.m.
Reed”s of Columbus opens at 8 a.m. and expects to sell a lot of “anything that says The North Face on it.”
Independent businesses are getting in on the act, too. Pitty Pats owner Patsy Wilkins will open at the reasonable hour of 9 a.m. Friday with specials throughout her fine gift store. She expects brisk sales for Christopher Radko Christmas ornaments and Fontanini nativity sets.
Although Pitty Pats is located in far north Columbus a little off of Highway 45, Wilkins, who has been in business for 32 years, says Pitty Pats is already getting a lot of traffic this year.
“We”re a little out of the way but we”re a lot out of the ordinary,” she said.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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